The Pakistani Taliban have abandoned their last key stronghold and booby traps and explosives littering their hideouts now present the main danger to the soldiers who control the territory, military officials say. Instead of black-clad militants, uniformed men and the odd lone donkey wander the streets of Miranshah, the capital of Pakistan's northwestern region of North Waziristan. For years, Pakistan's allies urged the South Asian nation to strike against...

By Mirwais Harooni KABUL, July 2 (Reuters) - Afghanistan accused Pakistan's army on Monday of launching months of rocket attacks on its territory and threatened to report Islamabad to the U.N. Security Council, straining already troubled ties between the neighbours. Kabul has regularly accused elements in Islamabad's government and army of backing militants and carrying out attacks inside Afghanistan's borders - charges denied by Pakistan. But it was...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani forces on Thursday launched their first major offensive in years against Taliban militants near the Afghan border after several rounds of government-led talks aimed at ending an insurgency in the remote region failed. The offensive targeted the Matchis Camp near the capital of North Waziristan, an area set up to house Afghan refugees but now a hub for local and foreign militants, said Siraj Ahmed, the highest government official in the region....

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani forces on Thursday launched their first major offensive in years against Taliban militants near the Afghan border after several rounds of government-led talks aimed at ending an insurgency in the remote region failed. The offensive targeted the Matchis Camp near the capital of North Waziristan, an area set up to house Afghan refugees but now a hub for local and foreign militants, said Siraj Ahmed, the highest government official in the region....

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's army launched new air strikes targeting militant hideouts in the tribal region of North Waziristan on Tuesday, killing at least 30 people and setting off a wave of refugees, military officials and local residents said. Pakistani fighter jets have been pounding targets in the region since the government's efforts to engage Taliban insurgents in peace negotiations broke down this month. North Waziristan residents have been...

By Haji Mujtaba MIRANSHAH, Pakistan Feb 24 (Reuters) - A top commander of the Pakistani Taliban was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Monday in the militant stronghold of North Waziristan, security sources and family members in the tribal region told Reuters. Asmatullah Shaheen was on the Pakistan army's list of twenty most wanted Taliban commanders, and had had a $120,000 bounty placed on his head since 2009. He was appointed as interim chief of the...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - An aide to Pakistan's embattled prime minister said on Tuesday there was "no doubt" the country's powerful military and Supreme Court were working together to topple the government. Fawad Chaudhry was speaking to Reuters after the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. A populist cleric believed to be backed by the military has called for the resignation of the unpopular government. (Reporting by Mubasher...

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Two suicide bombers rammed their explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of an army base in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least one soldier and wounding eight, security officials said on Wednesday. The attackers, who drove in from Afghanistan, were stopped before they could get into the camp in the South Waziristan capital of Wana, where thousands of soldiers are stationed, army officials said. "Security forces intercepted the car...

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Pakistani fighter jets bombed suspected militant hideouts in a tribal area on the Afghan border on Thursday, killing at least 15 people, security officials said, after attempts to engage insurgents in peace negotiations collased this week. "We received information about militant hideouts and based on our intelligence, precision strikes were carried out around midnight in the Mir Ali...

* Bad weather, size of avalanche hinder rescue * General says finding anyone alive would be miracle By Mahawish Rezvi ISLAMABAD, April 14 (Reuters) - There is little hope that any of the 128 Pakistani soldiers and 11 civilians buried under an avalanche that engulfed a battalion at an alpine camp a week ago will be found alive, Pakistan's army said on Saturday. "We are praying to God for a miracle," Major General Ishfaq Nadeem Ahmad, the head of...

* Killings occured while Sharif seeks peace talks * Army publicly supports talks but expects more fighting By Maria Golovnina and Mehreen Zahra-Malik ISLAMABAD, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Pakistan's army on Wednesday said more than 100 soldiers had been killed by Taliban militants in the last five months, in a rare admission of mass casualties since the start of government efforts to engage the insurgents in peace talks. The administration of Prime...

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber killed 10 people in a crowded market near the Pakistani army headquarters on Monday, a day after the Taliban killed 20 soldiers near the largely lawless, tribal region of North Waziristan, police said. The market, a short walk from the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, is in one of the most secure areas of the city, said police chief Akhtar Hayat Lalika. The area was cordoned off by the...